Your smartphone can help SA Police to solve crimes

08 May 2019 4:37pm

Police have long urged everyday South Australians to be their eyes and ears in the community. Now, they’ll be better equipped than ever before to receive and assess community leads, with today’s launch of uWitnessIt.

The 12-month trial will enable SA Police to receive still photographs and video electronically for nominated investigations and significant incidents via a cloud-based server.

Assistant Commissioner Paul Dickson believes the timely trial could prevent the loss of potentially valuable information held by members of the public, and provide early access to vital material for investigators.

“We need only look to recent examples, both within Australia and abroad, to appreciate the tremendous evidentiary value of ephemeral vision captured by public smartphones, dashboard-mounted cameras and CCTV systems”, says Assistant Commissioner Dickson.

“By providing a simple, streamlined process for members of the public to send their material to SA Police, we can begin to unlock that potentially valuable information, and reduce the amount of resourcing required to collect footage manually, via traditional methods.

“Throughout the trial period, we will deploy public-facing portals on the South Australia Police website only as required for specific investigations.

“Members of the public who nominate to submit photographs or vision via these portals will receive a private, single-use link directly to their mobile phones, and will have the option to remain anonymous, if they don’t wish to share their contact details”, says Assistant Commissioner Dickson.

Police will gauge the trial’s efficacy, and the community appetite for assisting with such appeals, via quarterly reporting during the year-long trial.

Shutterbugs can check for the uWitnessIt link on forthcoming South Australia Police news releases, or visit this link for a list of current appeals.